Revisit a Tendulkar classic

A new series called NCPA Classics hopes to revive classic and contemporary works of Indian playwrights. The play, A Friend's Story, which is an English translation of Vijay Tendulkar’s Mitrachi Goshta will premiere as a part of this new series

With the idea of revisiting the works of great Indian playwrights, Deepa Gahlot, head – programming theatre and films, national Centre for Performing Arts, will be curating a series called NCPA Classics. "People tend to believe that theatre is for the moment.

A still from the play, A Friend's Story, which is an english translation of Vijay Tendulkar's Mitrachi Goshta

India has such a rich heritage of both classic and contemporary playwrights whose works though popular once upon a time, have been forgotten today. It also helps one understand the playwright and the times a little better. There are many playwrights like Girish Karnad and Satish Alekar, who are still writing plays but people don't get a chance to see their older works as they are not staged anymore," explains Gahlot.

A Friend's Story, an English translation of Vijay Tendulkar's Mitrachi Goshta will be premiering as a part of this new series. "Vijay Tendulkar is a very popular playwright. This play however hasn't been performed much. It is extremely relevant today, as it was one of the first plays that dealt with LGBT issues and offered an insight into the lives of people dealing with their alternate sexuality.

The first production opened in 1981 while the play was written in the 1970s, and is set in the 50s," recalls Gahlot. "When we started out on this project we spoke to many people, Akash (Khurana) was perfect to direct this as he is also the right age. Many of the younger directors are afraid of touching classics. He also admires Tendulkar's works and was excited about the fact that this play hasn't been performed much," she informs.

Gahlot assures us that this is only the first of many and her team will try to present at least two plays in a year as a part of this series. "The next one we plan to work on is most likely to be an old Sanskrit play which we would like to translate in English and Hindi," she reveals.